Rebel Staff

Unless you've been living under a rock this past week, you'll know the second trailer for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens hit the internet. The trailer debuted at Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim and has been viewed over 40,000,000 times since.

While many have tried to dig into this trailer to find story elements, they haven't gone deep enough. If you don't want parts of the film to potentially be ruined for you, stop right now. If not, keep reading.

The Battle of Jakku

Leaked concept art showed the aftermath of The Battle of Jakku long before the second trailer. For those who are unaware, JJ Abrams announced that the desert planet we've been seeing in the two trailers isn't the beloved Tatooine. It's Jakku.

The Battle of Jakku takes place after the events of Return of the Jedi and features Rebel and Imperial forces. It was announced at Celebration that upcoming video game Star Wars Battlefront will have a free DLC (downloadable content) featuring the Battle of Jakku. It was also announced that Battlefront will not have space battles. This is significant because it casts doubt on The Battle of Jakku (unlike the Battle of Endor and Naboo) having a battle in space in addition to the battle on the planet.

Early rumours have said that this is where Daisy Ridley's character Rey is living. This would certainly fit with the fact the character is a scavenger – which was confirmed by Ridley herself at Celebration.

Darth Vader's melted helmet/mask

Two pieces of leaked concept art show Darth Vader's melted helmet. The first is strictly a close-up of the helmet, while the other really sheds some light into potential plot spoilers.

During the 'My Father Has It' scene we have a close up of the melted Vader mask. The melted Vader mask has been seen in leaked concept art.

In the leaked art, the mask is being held by a mechanical-looking/disfigured character in a cloak while on what appears to be a space ship of some sort.

Notice his hands. While Star Wars characters are no strangers to prosthetic limbs, it appears this character has had both his arms replaced. This is note worthy for future trailers.

Is the character in the leaked art Kylo Ren (the new villain with the crossguard lightsaber) without his mask? Perhaps.

R2-D2 / Robotic Hand

Fast forward a bit to the 'I have it' shot featuring a cloaked figure with a robotic arm touching R2-D2. The person is not confirmed to be Luke Skywalker. While we never see the character's face, he or she appears to be in a location with fire.

Also note the character's right hand is touching the droid – it was Luke's right hand that was cut off by Vader in The Empire Strikes Back. A hand that wielded...

Luke / Darth Vader's old lightsaber

The next scene, 'My Sister Has It' shows what appears to be an unknown character with an alien hand passing Luke / Anakin Skywalker's old lightsaber to another unknown character.

However, if you pause the video at exactly the right frame you can make out what appears to be an abnormal face. There are a couple of characters this could be judging by concept art and the trailer itself. The lighting, however, makes it very difficult to completely verify.

During a panel at Celebration, Oscar Isaac revealed that his character, Poe Dameron, was sent on a mission by a 'certain princess'. He stopped short of flat out saying Princess Leia. He then ends up coming across John Boyega's character Finn and 'their fates are forever intertwined'.

“The film does open with a lightsaber in space. It falls to the ground in a savannah environment during the day. It is quickly discovered by a farmer named Naka. Naka accidentally ignites the weapon and starts a fire with it. At first he runs, but then turns around and obtains the weapon. I assume he snatches the weapon so it is not destroyed in the fire. Naka then takes the weapon to his elder called The Vicar.

The Vicar is most likely played by Max von Sydow. It is most likely a code name too. Chances are they didn’t need to name the character during filming so they just went with the title The Vicar. Anyways, the Vicar appears to contact the Rebels and this brings Poe Dameron to the planet.

Later that night, Poe Dameron arrives and retrieves the lightsaber from The Vicar. The only problem? They’ve brought the Empire there as well (not sure if the Empire followed Poe or intercepted the initially transmission he received). Poe sees Stormtroopers are coming and he places the laser sword safely in a little droid: BB-8. The droid flees and the heroic Poe Dameron prepares to fight!

Concurrently, a young Stormtrooper named Finn enters a situation that will drastically change his life forever. When his best friend dies in battle and he allows a few innocent villagers to escape, Kylo Ren orders him arrested and the village burned to the ground. Because Finn just isn’t naturally evil enough, he finds himself in the brig of a Star Destroyer with a Rebel pilot. Finn never learned to fly. Finn has the knowledge how to get out of the brig and Poe is their best chance to fly out of there. They hatch a plan to steal a TIE Fighter and make a run for it.”

This adds up very well considering there is a scene in the trailer where a TIE Fighter is seen shooting at Stormtroopers inside of what appears to be a Star Destroyer.

Also note that the rumour states that droid BB-8 belongs to Poe. This can be backed up given the fact that he's an X-Wing pilot and new model X-Wings on display at Celebration show what looks to be BB-8 (or similar ball droid models) on top of them, replacing what used to be R2 units.

It was previously speculated that BB-8 belonged to Rey, but that seems unlikely now.

If BB-8 indeed holds the lightsaber everyone is after, then it mirrors the role of R2-D2 in A New Hope, with that droid carrying the Death Star plans.

What is the lightsaber's purpose?

This October report from Badass Digest conflicts partly with some of the above info, but there are some similarities. Do note that Ridley's character had previously been reported as being called Kira.

“Remember that I told you the movie begins with the discovery of the lightsaber? Well, it isn't Daisy Ridley who discovers it but rather a blue alien guy. He brings it to a salvage yard where Kira - that seems to be what Ridley's character's name is, or at least what they're calling her on set - sees it. She's hanging out there with von Sydow, who is an old cyborg dude, a guy who maybe has dementia. He talks a lot of nonsense. But as soon as that lightsaber shows up, he gets lucid. He recognizes it. He begins to talk about the old days, name drops a couple of Prequel Trilogy characters, even. And then, after Kira and the alien leave he makes a call to a mysterious figure. "It's here," he says. But who is he calling?”

Once again, take concept art into consideration. Bear in mind that this rumour was posted online before the art was leaked.

In the art, we see the blue alien – most likely Lupita Nyong'o's character in a cantina. The 'cyborg guy' the report mentions was also featured in concept art – sitting at a bar.

It seems rather odd that a weapon last seen on Cloud City in Empire Strikes Back now has such a massive purpose.

Why is Vader's mask, which was burned after the Battle of Endor, suddenly featured in a trailer and concept art?

If the burned mask is in the possession of Kylo Ren, why?

Who is Kylo Ren?

Needless to say, Kylo Ren has the internet talking. And they haven't shut up since his infamous crossguard lightsaber was first seen in the original teaser trailer.

“Rey and Luke go into hiding at exactly the same time for the same reason. She is the daughter of Han and Leia and she’s tasked with protecting a lightsaber that can open a proverbial Pandora’s Box of evil. Artifacts being sought after by Kylo Ren are collected because they’re trying to figure out which artifact will open the tomb. Luke Skywalker is guarding the tomb and being tormented by evil spirits that appears half crazed from the duty he’s been on.”

The dark side... and the light

It's unknown why or how exactly Vader's lightsaber would have the ability to open a tomb. But, if the rumours are true that The Force Awakens will feature flashbacks, then chances are this could be explained in one of them.

To recap...

A lot of rumours have new weight thanks to the recent trailer along with displays and panels held at Celebration.

While nothing can be completely verified, there will be more hints coming in recent months in book form.

Certainly the information we've managed to dissect from displays and concepts hold weight.

Given the fact that we've only had what amounts to teaser trailers thus far, we'll have a lot more to talk about once the first official full-length trailer is released or more concept art leaks, shedding light on the plot to one of the biggest films of all time.

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